Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon.

A/N: This is short, painfully short, I'm afraid. There was so much more I wanted to do here but that will have to wait for next chapter. And that chapter will be monstrous, I promise you. Anyway, happy new year everybody and if you are reading this fic, check out my new one called Memories of Light. You won't be disappointed. ;)

At the end of our war with the Renegade, the Aal chose to hide themselves. Ultimately, the planet Earth belonged to them but it was inherited by the soldiers we had sent there. It was during the time of Setsuna's betrayal that the Aal once again played a major role.

Chronicles of the Elder Races Volume 9 in the History of the Universe

Deep within the mountain cave, a hooded figure stirred from his slumber. The air was filled with the cloying stench of smoke and he could see that it had finally penetrated this last sanctum. Stumbling to his feet, he checked one of the shrouded figures sitting unnaturally still near himself. With a small sigh, he closed the sightless eyes staring back at him. Ra'then had been his friend for countless centuries. His passing was just one more blow in the recent string of losses he had endured; losses, his whole race had endured.

Knee joints creaking, he sat down cross-legged and began to chant the last rites for his kind. He did not get them right as he had not gotten them right for his past three friends. There was something in the smoke that was clouding his thoughts. It was yet another preventative measure. The traditions of the Aal held their own power though and that power could not be blocked with the black abominations that had been erected outside. If he could only finish the chant, he might be able to link with whoever remained of his race through the one common link they all shared, sadness. Afterwards, all they would have to do was combine their strength and send a message over the thoughtscape, which would be detected by one of the Star Born telepaths. It was plan with the slimmest chance of success and its execution depended on him finding enough of his race with the will and capacity to survive. He had no other choice.

Gathering his resources as best as he was able, he began to chant the last rites again. This time he almost reached the end but something else stopped him.

'Did you think I would not block you, fool of a race of fools. You could have been mighty again in the land that once belonged to you if you had only done what I asked. Now, I will crush your feeble race into the dust from which it rose.'

Fighting back the pain in his mind, the Aal focused his thoughts and began the chant again. The voice stayed with him but this time he kept his focus. As he chanted the last line, he could feel his consciousness beginning to drift. The telepath made one last attempt to hold him but through pure determination, the Aal managed to break through.

As his consciousness drifted out of the cave and into the sky beyond, he focused on finding the rest of his people. What he found was very discouraging. There were so few living among the greater dead. It might not be enough to launch his plan. Despair threatened to overwhelm him but then one of the life signs he had detected reached out to him.

'Who is there?'

Wonder filled the Aal. Of all the people in his race he could have encountered, he never imagined that a telepath would be one of them. With a desperate urgency, he responded, 'Brother, lend me your strength. We may be able to save what few of our people are left.'

'What is the use?' The voice responded in a desolate tone.

Channeling all his anger to overcome the helplessness he felt, the Aal said, 'We cannot give up. The Aal have survived for centuries. If we are to die, our deaths must have more purpose then this. Have we even repaid the debt we owe to our planet?' He felt a stirring at the last sentence and then:

'I will help you although I am no sure it will do any good.'

'We will never know unless we try.' Seizing hold of the other Aal's presence, he anchored himself so that his own energies could be drawn upon.

He felt the other Aal gather his energies and was shocked at how weak they were. One thing suddenly became clear then, this act was the last thing this Aal would ever do. And then, his own energies were being drawn upon. He felt them rise to a peak and then there was a burst and they were released.

'My name was Mak'heil. Chant the song of mourning for me if you have the time.'

The consciousness of the Aal faded and then he was by himself again. Severely weakened, he closed his eyes. There was nothing more to be done. He would have to hope for the best.

Unfortunately, at that very moment, Daisuke Motomiya triggered his own mental burst in the City of Atlantis. The two energies collided on the thoughtscape and cancelled each other.

The Aal knew none of this though. He lay on the floor of his cave growing progressively weaker. After some time that he had no way of measuring, he heard the howling of a wolf.

Standing atop a building, Mimi Tachikawa stared down in consternation at the mob gathered in the town square at the middle of Kroy. At first she had thought that Takeru had been behind this too but now she was not as sure. Below, the shouting of the crowd rose in volume again. Mimi made herself look down at the spectacle. Her men would not judge her as weak if she turned away but this was something she had to bear witness to. After all, it was her decision not to send anybody to help the victims. The shrill screams of the current victim did not help either as, bound and gagged, she was offered up to an altar erected in the middle of the square. A hooded figure stepped up to the altar, an already bloody knife in his hand. With calm deliberation, he began to work on the woman. Cutting chunks of her flesh; he hurled them into the crowd. The woman lasted a long time due to the slow pace of her butcher.

There was a low growling sound beside her and she reached out and put her hand on the shoulder of the man standing to her left. "Easy Hassan," she murmured, trying to keep the shakiness from her voice. "I promise, we will pay them back for this."

She wished that she could believe that herself. Despite the barbaric acts below, she could not detect any trace of evil with her powers. Even the hooded figure seemed fairly ambivalent. There was an underlying sense of something else but it disappeared whenever she tried to focus on it. The whole thing was maddening in a way.

Down below, the woman finally stopped screaming. The roar of the mob subsided as well. For the moment, it seemed as if they had run out of victims.

Mimi turned to face the small group of scouts gathered behind her. All of them were ashen faced and judging by the faint stench of vomit, some of them had been physically ill at the sight. That was another regret. Being Chosen, she knew what it felt like to have your innocence stripped from you. Most of the scouts surrounding her were battle hardened but that only served as a thin layer of protection when confronted with acts such as the one they had just seen. They had all lost a little just witnessing the scene. She had to take them past the moment.

Clearing her throat, Mimi said, "All right, you have all seen what we face. I plan to crush that mob at sunrise but first; I want you to do something. The acts down there are reprehensible and I want to know why they are occurring. The answers may lie in the ruins of the Dark Ocean Embassy. I want you all to proceed cautiously. Whatever affected the mob down there may affect you as well. Take the utmost precaution but find me a reason for these acts."

The three boys and two girls nodded and Mimi watched as they left. She stayed on the roof for half an hour more, observing the crowd as it settled down and the people began to lie down on the cold, hard floor. Mimi frowned, as they appeared to go to sleep. The synchronicity of it was yet another oddity.

Seeing all that she wanted to see, Mimi unfurled her own wings. It was time to get back to the Embassy. She had to give the soldiers as once over and check in with Saiki and then Taichi. Afterwards, she had to plan out how she was going to crush that crowd tomorrow. All in all, it was going to be one long night.

"There is something I want to show you," Koushirou said seriously. "It has weighed heavily on me for a week now and I want a straight answer."

Across the small table, Jyou looked up from the chessboard he had been studying. Raising one eyebrow, he said, "Go ahead."

Producing his D3, Koushirou hit a few buttons and passed it to Jyou. "This is a recording of a meeting we were not told about at the last summit."

"I didn't know you had taken to eavesdropping." Jyou said, taking the Digivice.

"You know as well as I that knowledge is power. Logically, I try to gather as much information as possible even if it means spying on our friends."

Jyou grunted as Taichi, Sora, Miyako and Hikari appeared on screen. Sighing, he shut off the D3 and passed it back to Koushirou. "How long have we been friends?"

"Since before the Heighten View Incident, all those years ago." Koushirou chuckled softly. "It was always you, Mimi and myself. I take it that you already knew about this?"

Jyou nodded. "Sora told Mimi and she told me."

"Why would Sora do that? From the video I saw, they were going to keep it all within their group."

"Sora and Mimi are as close as sisters. That's why Sora felt it best that Mimi know about this since she is close to both of us. She came to me later that day and subjected me to a complete metal scan."

"Wait," Koushirou interjected, "that makes no sense. The tactical advantages of keeping you in the dark outweigh just exposing you outright. Furthermore, they should have kept Mimi out of it simply because she is so close to us. I can't believe Sora could be this irresponsible."

Jyou shrugged. "I can only guess at her motivation but as for why she told Mimi..." he paused briefly, rubbing the back of his neck, "she and I have an... arrangement, I guess you would call it."

Koushirou's eyes slowly widened and then smirking, he said, "You dog. How long has this been going on?"

"The first time was a few months after Michael was killed. You remember how hard she took his death."

"Yeah, that was pretty bad." Koushirou sighed, looking down at the chessboard. "So, what do we do now?"

"We both submit ourselves to a complete physical checkup. That Brain Wave Transmitter you constructed should do for a mental scan."

"And what about the Guardian they are sending here?"

"Let him do what he needs to do. It will give the others some measure of relief. Meanwhile, we can launch our own investigation into whether someone here was responsible for what happened at Seona."

It was left unsaid that only they had the clearance to commit such an act and then cover it up so thoroughly.

The gray void of the thoughtscape slowly dissolved around Mimi, reforming into a white nothingness. She smiled, looking around and slowly muttered to herself, "And he had the nerve to call me a ditz."

A moment later, the object of her ridicule appeared in front of her. "How are things at Kroy," Taichi questioned without preamble.

"Not so good," Mimi replied gravely. "There is something that you should see but it is very disturbing."

"Show it to me," Taichi said. "I doubt it will be any worse then what I have already seen today."

"You want to bet," Mimi muttered before drawing upon her powers. The white nothingness around them slowly dissipated.

Mimi watched Taichi's face as the scene she had witnessed earlier played out in all its gruesome glory. He seemed to be taking it a lot better then she had done. There was little she could read in his face. As the scene ended, he turned towards her.

"Ok, you win," he conceded with a sigh. "What are you planning to do about this?"

"My units are ready to move at dawn tomorrow. We will disperse this crowd and then see what is causing all this."

"But you have reservations about this plan," Taichi added. "Did you sense anything while you were observing the crowd?"

"That's just it, I sensed nothing. No malice, no cruelty, no sense of evil at all. There was just a faint trace of something but whenever I tried to get it, it slipped out of reach. I hope to have an answer tomorrow when we've captured one of these people."

"All right, keep me updated and deal with this situation as fast as you can. With how things are going here, I am going to need your powers pretty soon."

"Oh, is the situation that serious?"

"Pretty much," Taichi grimaced. "The bastards have gotten around their own virus. They now have access to precision gateways. I've got a few Psimon tracking the energy trails and everything is quiet for now but I doubt things will stay that way for long."

"All right, I'll try to finish up as quickly as I can."

"There is one other thing," Taichi said grimly. "Kroy has been an open port for all of us. It is very likely that they have the coordinates for that place. I want the city destroyed and the landscape altered."

"There are people outside of the city that will protest. Are you sure about this?"

"If they complain too much, show them what you just showed me. It will make them think twice about their complaints."

Mimi shrugged. "Ok, but this won't go over well with the citizenry either way. They will not care who destroys their homes."

"Just get it done and get here as soon as you can."

Mimi nodded, dissolving the link between them. Her consciousness made its way back across the thoughtscape to her body. This time when the gray void dissipated, she found herself sitting inside a bathtub. The lukewarm water sloshed around as she raised her hand and rubbed her temples. Slowly, she went back over her day. After instructing her scouts, she had inspected the legions standing by and discussed strategies for crushing that mob tomorrow. Leaving Lillymon to oversee the legion's deployment, she had come back to the Embassy and been escorted to her room. Afterwards, she had drawn up a bath and then decided to contact Taichi. So, what was left before she turned in for the night?

Her eye caught the necklace sitting on the frame of the bathtub. With a sigh, she picked it up and stared at it. Why had Takeru chosen to use this particular device? Had it been a message to her? Did he know of her involvement? If he did know, what did he hope to gain by telling her now? It was a maddening series of questions with very few answers. Perhaps she should not have used him like that to get her own revenge on the Coda but then again, she had not been exactly rational back then.

Sighing, she put that whole ordeal out of her mind and rose to her feet. Drying herself off, she stepped in front of the dressing mirror and examined herself critically. Her white alabaster skin was a pink rosy hue from the warm bath. All in all, she could not say that she was wholly unattractive just yet. There were a few scars here and there from various battles but they did not completely mar her beauty. Still, her mother would have been shocked to see her precious daughter marked in such a manner. Reflexively, she flexed her arm into a hardened bicep.

"I'm probably getting too muscular to be putting on dresses," she muttered to herself. "You would hate that too, wouldn't you mom?"

Wrapping the towel around herself and reforming it into a pair of sleeping pajamas, she turned and opened the door of the bathroom. A shadow at the edge of her vision caught her eye and reflexively she stepped back. A dagger thudded into the door mere centimeters away from her face.

Moving on pure instinct, Mimi pulled the dagger out with a quick efficient movement. Then, throwing up her shield, she stepped forward cautiously into the room, scanning every place thoroughly. It did not take her long to see her attacker. He was standing a few feet away and had made no effort to conceal himself. Even more shocking was that she knew this man.

Eyes narrowing, she called out his name. "Hassan."

His head twitched, swinging upwards until his eyes were fixed upon her. She saw only emptiness there. It was almost hypnotic and she did not even notice him move until he had already collided with her shield. However, he did not recoil from the touch. Electricity from the shield crackled, frying his outstretched arms but he did not flinch, his eyes still fixed upon her. However, the momentary respite gave her time to use her powers to probe the man's mind. Unfortunately she did not find anything there. It was the same as when she had tried scanning the crowd earlier.

She cut off the mental probe as his hands inched closer to her throat. He was actually forcing his way through to her despite the pain it had to be causing him. She could see the blackened and charred skin of his hands. Frowning, she decided to go all out. It was apparent that there would be no reasoning with the man. He was too far-gone and her powers could not help him.

Drawing upon as much as energy as she was able, Mimi focused it all into her shield. There was a loud crackling sound and then Hassan was flying backwards. The recoil from her shield threw him across the room until he came into contact with the far wall with a bone-jarring thud. The impact left an imprint in the wall as he collapsed to the ground, seemingly unconscious.

Mimi clutched the dagger tightly in her hand as she approached the man cautiously. She silently berated herself for leaving Palmon with the legions outside. However, this whole situation was rather unpredictable and very confusing. Using her mental powers again, she began to probe what was left of Hassan's mind. Plunging deep into the depths of his subconscious, she found a sense of intelligence but it kept escaping her grasp.

She was vaguely aware of the door to her room crashing open behind her. Raising an arm, she motioned for the guards that had rushed into her room to be quiet. There was a whisper of someone being sent to get Catherine and then she tuned them out completely, focusing on what she had sensed.

There was a hint of darkness that she followed deeper and deeper into what remained of one of her scouts. The trace suddenly began to get weaker and she realized that whatever had possessed Hassan was in the process of terminating itself. Using her powers, she created a sense of life in the corpse. It seemed to work as the signal grew a bit stronger. Dangling her own powers like a carrot, she methodically drew the thing out from wherever it was hiding. Leaving a trace of life at the topmost part of his chest, she withdrew into her own mind.

Shaking her head to cut through the fog that surrounded it, she bent down next to Hassan's body and ripped open the front of his shirt. "I'm sorry about this old friend," she murmured under her breath. The skin in the middle of his chest suddenly moved as if something was lurking underneath. Stabbing downwards with the knife, she speared the parasite.

There were several loud gasps from behind her. Checking over her shoulder, she found that the three guards and Catherine were on their knees, clutching their heads.

"What's wrong?" She questioned, rising to her feet and drawing the knife sideways from the middle of Hassan's chest.

"Didn't you hear that," Catherine asked, rising unsteadily to her feet. "It sounded like a harsh screeching noise."

Mimi frowned and stared down at the knife in her hand. There was a small oval shaped black substance stuck to the point of the knife. A few protrusions coming out of it looked almost like roots.

"What is that?" Catherine stretched out a hand to touch it but Mimi grabbed the hand, stopping her.

"Let's not take any risks we don't have to," she cautioned. "Send out your guards and have the scouts I took with me earlier today rounded up and taken into custody. Take every precaution you can. Apparently, they are incapable of feeling pain."

"You heard her." Catherine turned to face the three guards. "Take as many men as you can from the Embassy, however, leave two behind to guard the Ministers."

The guards nodded and left the room.

Sighing, Mimi sat down on the edge of her bed. Marshalling her powers once again, she concentrated on the black substance and tried to see if there was anything there that she could sense. Finding nothing, she broadened her search to encompass the whole room. It surprised her when she detected yet another life sign coming from the corpse. This time however, it did not retreat when she sought it out.

'Lady Tachikawa.' The voice that addressed her was almost too faint for her to pick up. 'Parasite... took over... too strong... infected... no cure...'

Mimi tried to hang onto the signal but it faded beyond her ability to call it back.

"Well?" Catherine asked sitting down beside her.

"We've got trouble," Mimi said softly looking at the dagger in her hand.

Catherine sighed. "So what else is new. Is it anything we can't handle?"

"I don't know. Hassan's digimon contacted me just now. It seems as if both were taken over by a parasite that neither could resist. As soon as you locate the rest of my scouts and we can ascertain whether they are infected, we should think about leaving this city. We may even have to destroy it completely."

"That seems a bit extreme."

"There are other concerns." Mimi rose to her feet, reforming her clothes around her once again. "Looks like I'm going to have to skip another nights sleep. Come along, I'll fill you in on what is going on."

Next: He was hailed by all as a hero but in this world, even hero's fail.